This was the inaugural race here in Dallas - this group runs this race out of Minnesota, I believe - and running a first time race is always fun because the excitement is always pretty infectious. I'm going to start with the reason why I signed up for this one: SWAG. When Theresa told me about it, I wasn't sold because it was pretty pricey for a half marathon, but then I checked out the goodies. The coolest thing was instead of a shirt, we got really badass jackets. There's always a risk that the quality won't be great, but luckily they really were awesome. They are like any nice running jacket I would buy retail, complete with thumb holes, full neck coverage and hot pink piping, of course. Here is a picture showing the front of the jacket on the left and the back on the right. Pretty sweet.
Of course, this race is marketing as a race FOR women, so the entire thing was set up to appeal to us girl runners, so there were a lot of fun touches outside of the jacket. Of course EVERYTHING was pink, but one of my favorite touches that I've never seen is when we got to the race venue, they had set up tables in the restrooms with pink tablecloths, flower arrangements and baskets with goodies that might be helpful (bobby pins, hair ties, facial wipes, etc.) They even hung baggies of items in the outside porta-potties. I thought that it was a really cute touch. The merch and race flags, etc. were so amazing and of really nice quality - I was impressed with the setup.
This race had a really late start, when compared to what I'm used to for start times. The race was scheduled to start at 9am, but a couple of days before, it got pushed to 9:15a. Day of race? We started the half marathon at 9:30a, which in the nice (hot) weather we were having that morning, ended up making the race a little sticky toward the end. This race took place at QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie, which was fun since it was a new location to check out. There were 2 other large events going on in the same little compound that day, one at Verizon Theater and then the LARGE DFW Swap Meet in the parking lot next to us. That was fun to run by a couple of times to check out what everyone was selling out there. Even with these large events, parking was a breeze (and FREE) and we never had trouble with traffic or people getting in the mix.
There was a 5K, 10K and a Half Marathon option for this race. The half marathon route was 2 loops of a 6-ish mile route. We all started on the field in QuikTrip Park and then we ran one main back road on the way out, then hit a trail through a more wooded area (which I didn't know existed!) back to Beltline and the main entrance of the ballpark. We passed the ballpark to head out on our second loop and we spent a little more time on the main road for that one. Even though the loop changed a little on the second go around, they volunteers had already updated the signs and moved the turnaround, so there was never any question as to where we were supposed to go. It was pretty warm, but there were a couple of water stops - 3 total on each loop - along with porta-potties and gel at the halfway mark. There were 2-3 minor hills, but other than that, pretty flat course. I remember one hill was a little intimidating, but once we were up - no problem. Overall, the course was great. I've only done a repeat race once and that was a 3 mile loop that I had to do 5 times. I prefer the longer loop for less repeats, for sure. The second loop took us back through the entrance of the ballpark, we ran the entire outfield and then finished on the other side. Once we finished, there were more treats waiting for us:
Champagne or 7-Up in a commemorative glass AND a beautiful silver necklace with a ruby
Super cute men that were there SOLELY for us to ogle and take pictures with
Yep, they marketed to the ladies and delivered the goods in a big way. We really had a great time, the race was organized fantastically and we felt like we walked away with a great experience. I do want to comment on one more thing about this race: the volunteers and energy were INCREDIBLE. When we first started the race, everyone was SO excited, there was cheering and hooting - something you just don't get at every race. It felt like my first half again, I was excited and having fun. I realized that after running so many races, I may have a little race cynicism and this was the kind of race that knocked the doldrums off. It was impossible to have a bad time or get upset. The volunteers were so amazing as well as some pretty great spectators. One group of women came out and just handed out popsicles - and they stayed there the entire race. There were DJs at the water stops playing fun music to keep things lively and they had groups of very energetic high school kids handing out the water and gatorade. There were people cheering and yelling for us at each turning point, the police officers were super friendly and overall the energy was just awesome. Grand Prairie gets 2 big thumbs up for putting on such a great showing of people.
Next up is the Hit N Run 5K next Saturday - it's a fun little obstacle course 5K that looks like that Wipeout show on TV. Here's my current schedule:
2014
Races
January 11, 2014 – Bold
in the Cold 15K - DONE
February 2, 2014 – Too
Cold to Hold - DONE
February 8, 2014 – Hot
Chocolate 15K - DONE
March 29, 2014 – Women
Rock ½ Marathon - DONE
April 19, 2014 – Hit and
Run 5K
May 10, 2014 – Gladiator
Rock N Run
May 17, 2014 – Spartan
Super
May 18, 2014 - Spartan
Sprint
July 13, 2014 – Too Hot
to Handle
September 6, 2014 - Superhero Scramble
October 5, 2014 – Tough
Mudder
November 1, 2014 – Spartan Beast (TEXAS TRIFECTA!)
I'm talking to some girls at work about training for Dallas this year, so that may be my last race in December. I'm definitely planning on Little Rock in March. I want that BIG MEDAL!
Stay tuned for more fun.
PS - I did not check this for typos, so please ignore run on sentences, grammatical and/or spelling errors.
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